Why Karnataka Vidhan Sabha elections are very important for Congress?

We are finally done with the Gujarat elections. It was a highly anticipated event for a healthy number of reasons. Now as we are finally done with it all the actions shifts to Karnataka which is the next state to have Vidhan Sabha election. It is one of the large states with Congress government. Congress confronts a big challenge to form government again in the state.

The last couple of years has truly been disastrous for the grand old political party. They have lost everywhere except Punjab and they got a slight dose of happiness from Bihar where they rose as the third party in the grand alliance. They even managed to give a close fight to Congress in the Gujarat elections but they were just not able to dethrone BJP from the state.

Another significance of the Karnataka election is its timing it will probably be contested around May in 2018. After those elections will be contested for states of similar electoral significance like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, these will eventually set the tone for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Karnataka being a large state, it becomes important for Parties to strategize well for the elections and especially for Congress which will finally hope to bring its defeat streak to an end.

So, all the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2018 can combinedly be termed as the Semi-Final for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as it was termed for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

As Karnataka will be the first of these and only one of the above with Congress Government, It becomes even more significant for both Congress and BJP.